I got to Richland Saturday afternoon, still sleep deprived and after a 5 hour drive. I decided to get out for 4 miles to shake the cobwebs off of my legs and threw in some pickups on that run. It didn't feel horrible, but wasn't great either.
I really didn't want to get out of bed on Sunday morning, but I forced myself to do it and I knew that if I was going to get in a decent workout that I'd have to have someone to run with. I ate a piece of toast with butter and jam, a couple of swigs of Vitamin water and about half of a can of flat Pepsi from the night before.
I ran an easy one mile warm up and stretched out and felt surprisingly OK. My original plan was to run the first 20 miles of the race (Tri Cities Marathon) and then bag it. My head cold that I'd caught earlier in the week and the lack of a ride back to my car made me revise my plan.
It was a clear cool morning, perfect for running. When the gun went off I assessed the situation and found the guy who was leading the marathon (there was one marathon relay team ahead of us) and started talking to him. His name was Dan, he was from Portland and his goal was to run 'fast enough to win'. We talked a bit for the next few miles and we were clicking off miles at 6:07 to 6:08 (about 2:41 pace)with remarkable consistency. I decided at about the 5 mile marker that I would go to 7 miles and then jog back to the car, giving me a 15 mile day. Dan and I hit 7 miles in 42:55 (6:08 pace) and I ran back to the car at between 6:40-7:00 pace. My half marathon split according to the Garmin was 1:25:33 and I felt pretty decent about that.
I didn't have any problems with my breathing or anything else because of the head cold, and that surprised me a bit. I am still waking up stuffed up every day and am coughing up nasty gunk, but am feeling better than it was.
I am planning on running an easy 6 miles before the Zeitgeist race and then running the course as a tempo run, hopefully around 6:15 pace. Only 5 1/2 weeks to Memphis !
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Thursday, October 23, 2008
testing my resolve
Sunday's 18 miler left me feeling a little beat up, so I opted not to run on Monday. Tuesday's workout was slated to be 6 X 1/2 mile with two dot (two tenths of a mile) recovery.Although I felt really sluggish warming up, once I got going I felt OK. I ran 2:39, 2:38, 2:36, 2:36, 2:36, and 2:34. My goal was to average 2:37 (5:14 mile pace) on these and I did, and I also got faster on each one. That was the most solid tempo workout that I've done in a while.
After dinner that night I started to get a dull headache and felt achy. I did get up to run Hulls Gulch (8- miles) on Wednesday with Derek and Monica, but by that afternoon things had progressed to a full blown head cold. I am currently feeling weak and achy and am coughing up neon green gunk. Good times. I guess that this will teach me to take better care of myself and to start getting some rest. It will only be easy running for the next couple of days and hopefully I'll be OK by Sunday.On the bright side, I'm glad that I got sick now as opposed to the week of the marathon !
After dinner that night I started to get a dull headache and felt achy. I did get up to run Hulls Gulch (8- miles) on Wednesday with Derek and Monica, but by that afternoon things had progressed to a full blown head cold. I am currently feeling weak and achy and am coughing up neon green gunk. Good times. I guess that this will teach me to take better care of myself and to start getting some rest. It will only be easy running for the next couple of days and hopefully I'll be OK by Sunday.On the bright side, I'm glad that I got sick now as opposed to the week of the marathon !
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Barber to Boise weekend
Let me preface this blog by saying that I didn't get nearly enough sleep this week. Between celebrating my divorce being final on Tuesday, Monica's Birthday #1 on Thursday and Monica's Birthday #2 on Friday, I was running on fumes.
Beautiful day for Barber to Boise. Ran into Jon Hancock before the race and warmmed up with him, which I enjoyed immensely. We always have some good laughs and crack each other up. My legs felt decent enough and after my 1 AM snack of blueberry Pop Tarts and Powerade, I only had a mocha for breakfast before the race.
I knew that it was going to be a fast race as there were a contingent of young guys there and the Greater Boise guys as well. The gun went off and I found myself feeling decent, but only in about 15th place a half mile into the race. At that point I started racing and picking off some guys. I hit the mile in 5:24 (slower than I thought that it would be) and was probably in 12th or so. I continued to feel decent and picked off a couple more guys and hit the two mile mark in 10:59. At that point I was starting to feel some fatigue in my quads and the lack of sleep and the mental effort of racing escaped me. I was just putting one foot in front of the other at that point. I held my position though and no one caught me, so I ended up 10th overall and was the first runner over the age of 40 (actually would have won the 35-39 age group as well) in 17:14.9 (5:33 per mile average).Liz had come to watch the finish, so after the awards we ran back to her car, so all together I got in an 8mile day. I wisely went home Saturday and crashed by 11 and slept like the dead.
Sunday morning dawned clear and cool and I met Derek at his place in Garden City and we were quickly on the green belt.He ran the first 13 miles with me where we averaged about 6:45 pace. I dropped the pace after he quit, running 6:16, 6:22, and 6:30 pace. The Garmin measured the distance at 18.54 miles, but I'm going to call it 18.0 miles in 2:00:59. if that's the case I averaged 6:43 pace which bodes well. I felt decent and finished strong.My quads feel a little beat up this afternoon, but that's normal.
Planning on doing the first 20 miles of the Tri Cities Marathon next Sunday. That will be a good indicator of my fitness.
Thanks to everyone for all of your support.
Dave
Beautiful day for Barber to Boise. Ran into Jon Hancock before the race and warmmed up with him, which I enjoyed immensely. We always have some good laughs and crack each other up. My legs felt decent enough and after my 1 AM snack of blueberry Pop Tarts and Powerade, I only had a mocha for breakfast before the race.
I knew that it was going to be a fast race as there were a contingent of young guys there and the Greater Boise guys as well. The gun went off and I found myself feeling decent, but only in about 15th place a half mile into the race. At that point I started racing and picking off some guys. I hit the mile in 5:24 (slower than I thought that it would be) and was probably in 12th or so. I continued to feel decent and picked off a couple more guys and hit the two mile mark in 10:59. At that point I was starting to feel some fatigue in my quads and the lack of sleep and the mental effort of racing escaped me. I was just putting one foot in front of the other at that point. I held my position though and no one caught me, so I ended up 10th overall and was the first runner over the age of 40 (actually would have won the 35-39 age group as well) in 17:14.9 (5:33 per mile average).Liz had come to watch the finish, so after the awards we ran back to her car, so all together I got in an 8mile day. I wisely went home Saturday and crashed by 11 and slept like the dead.
Sunday morning dawned clear and cool and I met Derek at his place in Garden City and we were quickly on the green belt.He ran the first 13 miles with me where we averaged about 6:45 pace. I dropped the pace after he quit, running 6:16, 6:22, and 6:30 pace. The Garmin measured the distance at 18.54 miles, but I'm going to call it 18.0 miles in 2:00:59. if that's the case I averaged 6:43 pace which bodes well. I felt decent and finished strong.My quads feel a little beat up this afternoon, but that's normal.
Planning on doing the first 20 miles of the Tri Cities Marathon next Sunday. That will be a good indicator of my fitness.
Thanks to everyone for all of your support.
Dave
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
The last few days
It's been a pretty decent last few days. I ran an easy 13 with Murali on Saturday morning before hopping in the Garden City 5K and ended up pacing a gal through the first 2 miles at about 6:00 pace before she had to back off. Ended up calling that a 16 mile day, although it was probably a bit more than that. Sunday I set out to do 10 miles and my first mile was about 6:20, which felt pretty comfortable, my next couple of miles got faster, down to the 6:14-6:15 range and I held that through about 4 miles until I happened upon the Derkacs brothers, Derek and David, and ran about 4 miles with them at maybe 6:45 to 7:00 pace, I then dropped the pace back down to about 6:10-6:15 for the next couple of miles and added a 1/2 mile cool down to make an 11 mile day.
Tuesday I set out to do 10 X 3 dots with 1 dot recovery. I wanted them to be all at about 5:00 mile pace (1:30 each). I went 1:29, 1;31, 1:32, 1:34, 1:32 and 1:34 before I decided to cut it short. I did another 2 dot section in :55 (about 4:40 pace) to make 2 miles worth of repeats and a solid warm down of 3 + miles. I need to work more on my lactate threshhold as I was going lactic way too early in those shorter intervals. I realized the mental strain of trying to run that fast on my own and it's just taxing. If I had someone to chase or run with it certainly would have been more bearable.
This morning Monica, Derek and I did Hulls Gulch with the big uphill add on at the end. My quads were SCREAMING at me as I was climbing. I could definitely feel the lactic acid from yesterday's workout. Hopefully my legs will 'freshen up' over the next couple of days and I'll be ready to rip on Saturday for the race.
Tuesday I set out to do 10 X 3 dots with 1 dot recovery. I wanted them to be all at about 5:00 mile pace (1:30 each). I went 1:29, 1;31, 1:32, 1:34, 1:32 and 1:34 before I decided to cut it short. I did another 2 dot section in :55 (about 4:40 pace) to make 2 miles worth of repeats and a solid warm down of 3 + miles. I need to work more on my lactate threshhold as I was going lactic way too early in those shorter intervals. I realized the mental strain of trying to run that fast on my own and it's just taxing. If I had someone to chase or run with it certainly would have been more bearable.
This morning Monica, Derek and I did Hulls Gulch with the big uphill add on at the end. My quads were SCREAMING at me as I was climbing. I could definitely feel the lactic acid from yesterday's workout. Hopefully my legs will 'freshen up' over the next couple of days and I'll be ready to rip on Saturday for the race.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
City of Trees Half Marathon and Stupidity
The day dawned with gorgeous weather for the race. After a couple of pieces of toast and jam and an Irish Creme mocha I felt ready to roll. Although my stomach felt a little queasy warming up it seemed to settle by race time. My goal going into the race was 1:19:58 (6:06 per mile average) and I settled in well right away. My first mile was a 6:06, then a 6:07, my next two miles were covered in 12:13, and I was feeling decent. I had started out in 4th position overall and had moved into 3rd by 2 miles and I decided that I was going to be in 2nd place by 5 miles, and I was. It was shortly after that that I got passed and was back into 3rd again and that's where I sort of settled in. I hit 6 miles in 37:02 after hitting a bad patch in the 5th mile where I felt like I was going to dry heave, but I managed to settle in and fight that off. I hit 8 miles in 49:25 (6:10 pace) and then ran 12:11 for the next 2 miles to hit 10 in 1:01:36 (6:09 average).
It was shortly after this that everything went to hell. The 2nd place guy, me, and the 4th place guy all missed the turn and went straight on the marathon course. When I wasn't seeing the finish line at the 13 mile mark I knew something was wrong. At about the 14 mile mark I saw that the guy ahead of me had completely stopped and was talking to the volunteers. At that point a motorcycle cop also came up to us and said "I think that you guys went the wrong way." We followed the motorcyce cop and headed back in the direction of the actual finish line. We were both pretty chapped at this point that we were going to end up running 15+ miles. After talking to the race director afterward,we wondered why no one was there at a major point in the race to tell us where to turn. He wasn't willing to do anything as far as changing the results, even though it was OBVIOUS that we would have finished 2nd (1:19:XX), 3rd (1:20:XX) and 4th (1:21:XX) overall. The next time that finished was 1:27.
So, lesson learned. Don't run tiny races with poor organization, and if you do, make damn sure that you know where you're going. This would have been my fastest half marathon in 4 1/2 years. Instead I get nothing but disappointment and frustration.
Other people ran well. Theresa ran a PR of 1:52:08, Jamie ran 1:48:52, which I believe was also a PR for her and Laurel ran 1:34 and change.
Congrats to Monica and Scotty and Liz for all kicking butt at Portland !
I am recovering well, just need to catch up on my sleep !
Next goal: Barber to Boise 10K in 35:58 (5:47 pace)
It was shortly after this that everything went to hell. The 2nd place guy, me, and the 4th place guy all missed the turn and went straight on the marathon course. When I wasn't seeing the finish line at the 13 mile mark I knew something was wrong. At about the 14 mile mark I saw that the guy ahead of me had completely stopped and was talking to the volunteers. At that point a motorcycle cop also came up to us and said "I think that you guys went the wrong way." We followed the motorcyce cop and headed back in the direction of the actual finish line. We were both pretty chapped at this point that we were going to end up running 15+ miles. After talking to the race director afterward,we wondered why no one was there at a major point in the race to tell us where to turn. He wasn't willing to do anything as far as changing the results, even though it was OBVIOUS that we would have finished 2nd (1:19:XX), 3rd (1:20:XX) and 4th (1:21:XX) overall. The next time that finished was 1:27.
So, lesson learned. Don't run tiny races with poor organization, and if you do, make damn sure that you know where you're going. This would have been my fastest half marathon in 4 1/2 years. Instead I get nothing but disappointment and frustration.
Other people ran well. Theresa ran a PR of 1:52:08, Jamie ran 1:48:52, which I believe was also a PR for her and Laurel ran 1:34 and change.
Congrats to Monica and Scotty and Liz for all kicking butt at Portland !
I am recovering well, just need to catch up on my sleep !
Next goal: Barber to Boise 10K in 35:58 (5:47 pace)
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